foreword

Dear reader,

Renewed confi dence and a fresh agenda

Une confi ance nouvelle, et un nouveau programme

Wiedergewonnenes Vertrauen und eine neue Agenda

In his Foreword to the last issue Tim Josling pointed to a missed

opportunity for economists in the stalled Doha trade talks…“We economists could have done more to assist trade and agricultural ministers to reach a mutually acceptable solution …we missed an opportunity to improve the transparency of decisions and the impacts of policies”. I am sure this struck a chord with many readers, whether practitioners or customers of economic analysis, or indeed interested bystanders—for me it highlighted yet again the gulf

that can exist between economic analysis and actually infl uencing decision making in the public and private spheres. It is not just a case of communicating economic ideas and analyses in accessible and relevant formats, important though that is to the raison d’être of this journal.

Im Grunde

genommen handelt es sich beim Klimawandel um ein wirtschaft-liches Problem … Lösungen werden sich mit Hilfe eines tieferen Verständnisses für wirtschaftliches Verhalten finden lassen.

John DavisManaging Editor

Top ten downloaded EuroChoices articles from Blackwell Synergy in 2006

Rank Article Title Author

1 The Contribution of Bioenergy to a New Energy Paradigm. La bioenergie dans le nouveau paradigme energetique. Der Beitrag von Bioenergie zu einem neuen Energieparadigma

Daniel Torre Ugarte

2 Do People Value the Welfare of Farm Animals?. Les gens s’interessent-ils au bien-etre animal?. Messen die Menschen dem Wohl von Nutztieren einen Wert bei?

Diane Burgess, W. George Hutchinson

3 The Role of Home Gardens in Promoting Multi-Functional Agriculture in Hungary. La promotion de l’agriculture multifonctionnelle en Hongrie : le role des jardins familiaux. Die Rolle privater Nutzgarten bei der Forderung einer multifunktionalen Landwirtschaft in Ungarn

Ekin Birol, Gyorgyi Bela, Melinda Smale

4 How Decoupled are Decoupled Payments? The Evidence from Ireland. A quel point les paiements decouples sont-ils decouples ? Une etude de cas en Irlande. Wie entkoppelt sind entkoppelte Zahlungen? Die Belege aus Irland

Thia C. Hennessy, Fiona S. Thorne

5 Poverty, Inequality and Ethnicity: A Note to Policy Makers on Latin America. Pauvrete, inegalite et appartenance ethnique: note pour les decideurs sur I’Amerique latine. Armut, Ungleichheit und ethnische Merkmale: eine Anmerkung zu Lateinamerika fur Politikakteure

Nigel Poole

6 European Agriculture in the Wake of Globalisation: What are the Prospects for its Diversity?. Europaische Landwirtschaft in der Globalisierung: welche Zukunft fur ihre Vielfalt?. L’agriculture europeenne dans un monde globalise: quel avenir pour la diversite?

Horst Seehofer

7 Synergies between Farming and Rural Tourism: Evidence from Flanders. Les synergies entre agriculture et tourisme rural: l’exemple des Flandres. Synergien zwischen der Landwirtschaft und dem Tourismus im landlichen Raum: Ergebnisse aus Flandern

Guido Van Huylenbroeck, Isabel Vanslembrouck, Mieke Calus, Liesbeth Van de Velde

8 Targeting Monitoring Resources to Enhance the Effectiveness of the CAP. Cibler le controle des ressources pour ameliorer l’effi cacite de la PAC. Die Zielausrichtung von Uberwachungsressourcen zur Effektivitatsverbesserung der GAP

Iain Fraser, Rob Fraser

9 The Changing Structure of the Dairy Processing Industry in the European Union. Les changements de structures de l’industrie laitiere dans l’Union Europeenne. Die Anderung der Struktur der Milchverarbeitungsindustrie in der Europaischen Union

Garry Mahon

10 The CAP for Turkey? Potential Market Effects and Budgetary Implications. Etendre la PAC a la Turquie? Consequences possibles pour le budget et les marches. Die GAP fur die Turkei? Mogliche Auswirkungen auf Markt und Haushalt

Harald Grethe

04 EuroChoices 6(1) © The Agricultural Ecomomics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2007★

Economists in my experience need to be involved—even fi ght their way in—earlier in the policy cycle. I sense that we are pushing at an open door in that decision makers are increasingly seeing the relevance of economics in getting a handle on behaviour change. But beware of complacency. In the current proliferation of research and policy initiatives on bioenergy, for example, I fear that economics may not be suffi ciently to the fore; the main issues are seen (by scientists at least) as essentially scientifi c or technological, supplemented of course by the occasional mandatory economic appraisal. I sat in recently on a scientifi c discussion about minimising the carbon balances of different bioenergy production systems. It highlighted once again for me the conceptual gap in the way we view the world; when I suggested that everything has a value, even carbon, there was a polite silence. We do

need to communicate rather better with one another.

Whilst on the subject of economic analysis and decision making I feel I must mention the recent 600 page review by Sir Nicholas Stern, The

Economics of Climate Change. Taking all factors together, Stern’s models indicate that if we do nothing to stem climate change (business as usual) everyone in the world could eventually be between 5 and 20 per cent poorer per year than they would otherwise have been with appropriate abatement measures. The poorest countries would suffer disproportionately. In fi nancial terms, by 2050 the global cumulative ‘profi t’ (benefi ts less costs) of taking action to stabilise greenhouse gases is estimated at almost €2 trillion. All of this will require collective co-ordinated action by most of the world’s governments. Stern attempts to overturn much of the conventional wisdom on the economics of climate change i.e., the climate-policy ramp of modest emission reductions in the short-term followed by sharp reductions in the medium to longer-term. His conclusions are controversial and have attracted some rather critical comment—see for example Dasgupta (2006) who disputes Stern’s approach to dealing with intergenerational equity, Nordhaus (2006) who characterises the report as a political document and Tol (2006) who views it as alarmist and incompetent.

Despite the reservations I feel we can be grateful to Stern in one important sense. He has, arguably, greatly raised public awareness that, at its heart, climate change is essentially an economic problem and that solutions will be grounded in a deeper understanding of economic behaviour. There is much in this climate change agenda for agri-food and rural resource economists to engage with—contributions in this important fi eld will be gratefully received by the Editor.

Let me return for a moment to the Doha trade talks. This journal will be trying to re-capture some of the high ground for economists.

We are planning a Special Issue in the summer on the stalled talks and where we go from here. I am delighted that Tim Josling will be joining the team as Guest Editor to help us put the issue together—there will be contributions from front-line writers on trade issues and from experienced trade negotiators. So do please watch out for this special.

Our partnership with Blackwell continues to mature. Signifi cant benefi ts have already accrued in terms of marketing, enhanced visibility of the journal, electronic access, statistics on readership and downloads, with further development planned. The company has recently announced a merger with Wiley, the new entity to be known as Wiley-Blackwell. One of the main benefi ts is likely to be a signifi cantly enhanced marketing and sales reach particularly in North America, hopefully resulting in more readers and authors. In my recent encounters with the world of publishing I have been surprised by the very rapid state of fl ux and uncertainty in the market for scholarly publications, on both the demand and supply sides. The ‘opposing camps’ in the battle for access to research information might be characterised as the ‘liberals’ who envision a new world of free access unhindered by commercial considerations and the ‘corporatists’ who continue to see enormous value in the quality assured subscription-based business model. I

Le changement

climatique, dans son essence, est fondamen-talement un problème économique… Les solutions devront être enracinées dans un approfondissement de la compréhension des comportement économiques.

At its heart,

climate change is essentially an economic problem…solutions will be grounded in a deeper understanding of economic behaviour.

05EuroChoices 6(1)© The Agricultural Ecomomics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2007 ★

foreword

often wonder what the new long-run equilibrium in this market might look like and when it will appear—watch this space!

In the boxes you will see some statistics on submissions and article downloads in 2006. The top

downloaded article was Daniel De La Torre Ugarte’s review of the bioenergy sector. Work still needs to be done to increase submissions from Southern and Eastern Europe—although it is encouraging to see more material beginning to emerge from Spain and Italy. It would also be good to see

more submissions from France and Germany.

Please do consider writing for EuroChoices—as you can see in the ‘Themes’ box there is ample scope to contribute.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

John DavisManaging Editor

Email: john.davis@qub.ac.uk

Further Reading

■ Stern, N. (2006). Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change. HM Treasury, London.

■ Dasgupta, P. (2006). Comments on the Stern Review’s Economics of

Climate Change. University of Cambridge, UK.

■ Tol, R.S.J. (2006). The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate

Change: A Comment. Economic and Social Research Institute, Hamburg.

■ Nordhaus, W. (2006). The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate

Change. Yale University.

Editorial Policy

We welcome articles with economic reasoning, written in an accessible style, on topics that are relevant to decision-makers in agri-business, governments and NGOs, educators, students and the general public.

All articles are required to meet a high quality threshold on content and style and can range in length from 500 to 2,500 words. All main articles are subject to double-blind review. Summaries of longer articles are to be provided by authors. These will be translated by the EuroChoices editorial team and will appear in English, French and German. Each main section of EuroChoices provides you with a different opportunity to contribute.

Please feel free to contact John Davis, Managing Editor if you have any queries or would like to discuss an article concept. Careful attention should be paid to the EuroChoices Author Guidelines which are found on the EuroChoices webpages at www.blackwellpublishing.com/ec.

Themes and topics for future issues

I require a range of accessible articles on any agri-food and rural resource issue likely to be of interest to our readers. I would also like to stimulate a little more debate in EuroChoices around on-going EU/international policy, competitiveness and other issues—so please do keep this in mind whether your perspective is from industry, government, NGO, research, student or wherever—your views are welcome.

I list below a number of suggested themes—this is not an exhaustive list and authors of course are free to submit on other topics.

• Climate change issues associated with the agri-food and rural sectors, including the implications for trade and development;

• Economic and technical aspects of renewable energy, especially bio-energy;• Policy analysis—ex ante and ex post evaluations/views of EU and international policy issues;• EU Enlargement issues including impacts in candidate and new member countries;• Political economy of policy reform;• North–South trade and aid including governance issues;• Rural development perspectives—including farm competitiveness, agri-environment, sustainability, sociology of

rural change, rural tourism;• Economics of public goods and market failure e.g., environment, landscape management, animal welfare;• Structural changes in the food chain, including the role of FDI;• Bio-security and food chain management;• Technology and innovation;• Fisheries economics;• Implications of the regulatory framework e.g., Water and Nitrates Directives, for sustainable catchment

management;• The pricing of water and associated property rights;• European Commission and Member State Ministerial perspectives on policy issues.

06 EuroChoices 6(1) © The Agricultural Ecomomics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2007★